Joey Cardaccio, service manager at Slackwater Sandy, joins Utah Beer News for another episode of our 3 Beers with Joey video series.
Each month, Cardaccio will chat with us about three new or noteworthy beers worth checking out. Here are the three beers selected for May 2021:
- Lev Lion Lager (Měšťanský pivovar Havlíčkův Brod)
- Hofbräu Original Helles (Staatliches Hofbräuhaus München)
- Weihenstephaner Helles (Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan)
About the Utah Beer News Virtual Taproom
Utah Beer News conducts 15-minute video interviews with brewers, breweries, and everyday imbibers. These brief conversations are recorded virtually. They are uploaded the same day (or the next day) to the Utah Beer News YouTube channel.
Instead of the more in-depth interviews and brewery histories typical of the Utah Beer News Podcast episodes and Brewery Profile articles, these bite-sized conversations feature so-called “newsy” information. We talk about new beer releases, upcoming events, and general happenings in and around Utah’s craft breweries.
If you’re a brewer or brewery representative — or even an everyday imbiber with a story to share — and would like to participate in an upcoming episode, please fill out the contact form.
Slackwater Sandy Transcript (May 2021)
The following is a slightly edited transcript of our conversation. And here’s a previous article we wrote about Slackwater Sandy.
[Tim Haran]
Hi again, everyone. Thank you for joining Utah Beer News for the latest in our one-on-one conversations with local brewers, breweries, and everyday imbibers. I’m Tim Haran, founder of Utah Beer News. And we are back for our once-a-month check-in with Joey Cardaccio, service manager at Slackwater Pub & Pizzeria in Sandy. Welcome back, Joey.
[Joey Cardaccio]
Hey, Tim, how are you doing?
[Tim Haran]
I’m doing great. How have things been going for you?
[Joey Cardaccio]
Good. Really good. We’ve been getting super, super busy. We’ve just been crushing it over here. Got a lot of new beers. We’ve got a lot of cool stuff to talk about for this upcoming month.
[Tim Haran]
Yeah, for sure.
Before we get into talking about the three beers you’ve selected to highlight today, I wanted to mention American Craft Beer Week is just around the corner, in fact, it is next week, May 10-16, I believe.
So, if any local breweries would like to talk about what you have planned for the week or would like your events included in an article on the Utah Beer News website, just send me a message.
And I think, Joey, you’ve got a few things that you guys are doing at Slackwater. Why don’t you give us a rundown of what you’ve got going on?
[Joey Cardaccio]
Yeah, so in celebration of American Craft Beer Week. We’re going to do three back to back to back tap takeovers. On Monday, the first day, the 10th, we’re going to have Ogden River Brewing come down.
And then on Tuesday the 11th we have Strap Tank. And then Wednesday the 12th we have Shades. So three days in a row, kind of getting all the different regions of the craft beer scene covered.
[Tim Haran]
Very cool. Three days. Three counties.
[Joey Cardaccio]
So we’ll have four beers from each brewery for four bucks a pint. Some new stuff. I think Shades is going to bring some new stuff with them. Strap Tank always has come cool one-off stuff they like to share.
And Ogden River, since they’re brand new, I’m not sure what they’re going to bring down. So I’m excited to see what we get from them. It’s going to be a fun craft beer week for sure.
[Tim Haran]
Sweet. Yeah, can’t wait for that. Well let’s dive in for the three beers that you’ve selected for this month that we can find at Slackwater Sandy.
Let’s start with the first one. What have you selected?
[Joey Cardaccio]
It’s getting into the nicer weather season, crispy season as they say. I’m going to go with a couple — three lagers.
A classic. So you’ve got your Lev Lion Czech Pilsner. Czech Republic. 4.8%, super crisp, super clean. A little bit of a hoppy finish. This is literally one of my all-time favorite beers.
I remember not being able to find it for a few years here in Salt Lake and then lo and behold six months ago I found it at a Smith’s and I was like, you know what, I don’t care that this is at the grocery store. This needs to be at Slackwater. And here it is.
We sell a ton of it because this is just the beer that is celebrated worldwide and is just so good that I just wanted to bring it on.
[Tim Haran]
Man, I do love a Czech Pils. And I think the change in the Utah law really helped get that back into circulation here.
[Joey Cardaccio]
I think that’s what happened. You can go digging and find it at Smith’s and Harmon’s and Whole Foods, some of the other ones that have the better beer selections. I haven’t been able to find it since I found it that one day so that’s why I brought it down here. So I can drink it.
[Tim Haran]
So you can drink it. Very cool. Awesome. Yeah, that’s a good one.
[Joey Cardaccio]
So there’s a classic right there. Not as classic, but still up there is the Helles from Munich, Germany. Hofbräu Original.
Now, this is one you can get at the state liquor stores. I don’t know how readily available it still is. I have a couple cases here at Slackwater. This is a really nice beer. This is 5.1%.
Like I said, this is a Helles lager from Munich, Germany. So you’ve got your German hop flavor, you’ve got your light bitterness. It’s a little bit fuller-bodied than the regular light lagers. Just a touch of sweetness.
This is another one of my favorites. Really good, really refreshing beer.
[Tim Haran]
Yeah, you know my wife and I went to Munich a couple years ago and I drank my weight in Helles while I was there. And that’s a good one, too. That’s a delicious beer.
[Joey Cardaccio]
And like I said, you may be able to find it at some state liquor stores but last time I checked there weren’t too many bottles floating around. But I got plenty.
[Tim Haran]
Nice. And you’re right. That’s just a perfect beer for this time of year. Perfect patio beer.
[Joey Cardaccio]
Yep. And then last one, another Helles, another perfect patio beer and in a can, which I love. This is the Weiheinstephaner Helles.
So this is the first time, this is a brand new beer for them. As it says, the world’s oldest brewery. But they’ve only bottled and they just released their Hefeweizens in a can and now this is a brand new beer that they just released for 2021 and it’s also in a can.
They launched it in the States a couple months ago. It’s really, really good. Same stuff as the Hofbräu.
This is 4.8%. It’s a little lower ABV than the Hofbräu. But another one that’s just really, really nice crisp beer.
[Tim Haran]
And that one, too, when we were in Germany we hiked up to the brewery there and they’re coming up on their thousand-year anniversary here pretty soon.
[Joey Cardaccio]
I’ve got a little bit of a glare but I don’t know if you can see it says since 1040.
[Tim Haran]
Yeah, 1040. They’ve got about 20 years before their thousand-year anniversary.
[Joey Cardaccio]
That’s crazy. So yeah, those are the three I decided to go with today. Now we talk a lot about sours and hazies and that gets a lot of press and everything. I think it’s good to celebrate the OG crispies from Europe, do you know what I mean?
[Tim Haran]
Exactly. For sure, for sure. And speaking of lagers, I mean we’ve got Cinco de Mayo coming up, too, so Mexican lagers, you’ve probably got a few of those that you’ve probably got available as well. Those are always fun ones to drink this time of year.
[Joey Cardaccio]
I actually have three on draft right now.
Yeah, I have Bohemian’s Sir Veza. I have Revision’s El Repaso on draft right now. And we have a dark Mexican lager from Upslope in Colorado. Upslope Brewing. I have their dark Mexican lager on draft right now.
[Tim Haran]
That’s sweet. Very cool.
So you’ve got the activities going on next week for American Craft Beer Week? Anything else going on throughout the rest of May?
[Joey Cardaccio]
No other events, just the three tap takeovers for that week.
And then we have our monthly food specials that we have every month. This month we’re showcasing a mole sauce.
So we’re doing mole wings and mole pizza and we have a Cinco de Mayo-inspired salad too that’s really, really nice.
And then just some different local beer specials that I have on the list for May. The new Steady Edge Imperial Red from RoHa, which I love. So I decided to put it on the menu. It’s really, really good.
[Tim Haran]
Yeah, I liked that one too. I was able to grab some of that last week and it is a good beer. And their taproom, too, their expanded taproom is really nice. It’s much bigger.
[Joey Cardaccio]
I haven’t had time to stop by yet but the pictures online, it looks awesome.
[Tim Haran]
Cool, Joey. Alright, well another three solid selections. I’m always a fan of the crispy lagers. You know, you can only, your tastebuds can only take so much of the hoppy, you know, palate wreckers, or sours or things like that. So I’m looking forward to some of these.
Well, I shouldn’t say. Yeah, I know, I’m kind of being a hypocrite here.
[Joey Cardaccio]
You’ve got Space Oddity.
[Tim Haran]
Space Oddity from Level Crossing so I’m wrecking my palate but in a good way.
[Joey Cardaccio]
That’s a great beer.
[Tim Haran]
It’s a delicious beer. I’ll have a sip right now.
[Joey Cardaccio]
There you go.
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